Starting At Square One

Max and Silvia Evans At Scaling New Heights 2014

About a year ago, I had virtually no experience with QuickBooks, or any tools of the trade, for that matter. Today, I’m still no expert, but I’m well on my way to being an adept professional with a well-rounded understanding of QuickBooks.

It all started when I began working with my mom. Silvia Evans, President of Palm Beach Accounting and Financial Services LLC, hired me as an intern and showed me basic QuickBooks tasks, like entering transactions and reconciling bank statements.

Next, I attended Scaling New Heights 2014. It was an opportunity to just take a look, to go into the jungle and to simply see what this whole small business accounting world is like. I was amazed! I met app developer after app developer, and what took me by surprise was the culture of innovation. These weren’t just programmers that had put some code together and handed it over to accountants, like a paper bag of fast food. No, these were determined groups from around the world that wanted to radically change the way accounting works. They were lively, they were diverse, and they wore cool t-shirts! It was at that time I realized these were not just a bunch stogy old accountants putting some numbers together; it was a culture seeking to better their trade and determined to find and solve problems. This is when it clicked. I began to look at my work less like a summer job and more like a career path.

In talking with other accountants at SNH, one thing became obvious; I had no credentials. I couldn’t say much about myself, except that I was an excited newbie. So, the clearest option was to get certified with QBO. By taking the great online training courses, I earned the badge of Certified QuickBooks Online Pro Advisor within two weeks.

My next opportunity was the most interesting yet. I tagged along on my mom’s trip to last

Time With Brad Smith

summer’s Accountant Council. Low and behold, I scored a “backstage” tour at Intuit headquarters in Mountain View, CA. Spencer Utley, a young product developer at Intuit, generously showed me around and gave me a glimpse of what it’s like to work there. Seeing Spencer’s success, not that far past the gates of a college degree, gave me a vision of my own possibilities.

I was hooked. In the fall, I attended the inaugural QuickBooks Connect event. QuickBooks Connect sponsored college students to attend for free! I hoped to see more people my age there, because it’s such a fantastic opportunity to learn all about the QuickBooks ecosystem. In addition to motivational talks by Magic Johnson, Bill Rancic, Ariana Huffington, and more, plus seeing Train live in concert, I also took a challenging Advanced QBO Certification course with Michelle Long. I realized there is much more to learn, but I’m off to a great start.